Industrial Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, in the Gilded Age (1890-1910), was renowned for its industrial prowess and for the staggering fortunes that its smoky steel mills generated. The city quickly grew crowded, as people poured into the area to reap their fortunes in one way or another. The first motion picture theatre was built in 1929 in the Downtown section of Pittsburgh, its name simply -- The Nickelodeon.

Seen from atop Mount Washington--day or night--the city is a breathtaking vision. Western Pennsylvania's business and financial hub, a vital shopping and restaurant district, its architecture possesses great class and distinction.

Downtown straddles the land between the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers just above The Point. The city grew naturally from the establishment of Fort Duquesne by the French in 1754 and then Fort Pitt by the British in 1758. Rich nearby deposits of iron ore and coal--combined with the natural transportation system of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers--energized the early industrial growth of Pittsburgh. Laid waste by the Great Fire of 1845, the city was resurrected from the ashes and went on to become the North's industrial backbone during the Civil War. The city's continued vitality is a combined effort of public and private sector collaborations cemented by the instincts of its early, frontier roots and by the strength of its ethnic diversity.

The Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet at The Point, then flow into the Ohio which flows into the great Mississippi which flows down and out into the Gulf of Mexico. The land before the rivers themselves was made into a state park.